Amazing miniature musical carousel
By Bianca Mangion
BIANCA MANGION chats to George Rotenstein the Australian
creator of a collection of miniature musical carousels. Embodying all the beauty of an amusement park carousel with intricate
detail, colourful lighting, movement and music, each of the horses
has a finely-detailed body,
designed and created in a variety of materials
including sterling silver and 18-carat gold.
When Australian trained watchmaker George Rotenstein visited the Hawaiian capital of Honolulu in 1964, he stumbled upon something that delighted and inspired him, but he didn’t know at the time that it would change his future. A collection of miniature musical carousels, all made in New York, were on display beneath the glass of a museum cabinet. The gleaming, rotating rainbows of horses, clowns and carnival music captivated and amused him, and though he could not afford to take one of the pretty carousels back home to Sydney, he knew this encounter would not end here.
“I was just inspired by what I saw,” Rotenstein says. “I don’t remember the quality of the carousels; I just remember I wanted to buy one but I didn’t have the money. I said to myself, ‘If I’m ever in a position to make one, I will’.”
Twenty-five years later, Rotenstein committed to a project that would take over two years of research and development, and 18 months just to handpick a team of 14 specialised craftsmen.
Skilled jewellers, a designer from Tasmania, an engineer from Melbourne, silversmiths, an electronic expert, a talented artist specialising in miniatures, technicians and castors, and someone who hand-cut and polished crystal mirrors in Adelaide were all brought together over eight long months to create the first-ever Balgara miniature musical carousel.
Embodying all the beauty of an amusement park carousel with intricate detail, colourful lighting, movement and music, the 28x30cm carousels are still small enough to fit on a coffee table, yet each of the horses has a finely-detailed body, mane, tail, saddle, rein and stirrups, designed and created by master jewellers in a variety of materials including sterling silver and 18-carat gold. The horses rise and descend as they travel around the carousel, to music that evokes childhood memories of fairgrounds and circuses.
Ornate in its decoration, each carousel is custom-produced to incorporate customers’ wishes. Individually named and hallmarked, the pieces are guaranteed unique and authentic, and are accompanied by information about the artisans who contributed to their manufacture.
Favourite: the Kindertraum carousel.
Rotenstein adds proudly: “If you buy a carousel and you treat it properly, it will go for 100 years without any service. That’s how good the workmanship is of the engineer who made the mechanical infrastructure.”
All parts are Australian-made with the exception of the Swiss motor. Custom ordered miniatures can include anything from horses, giraffes and kangaroos to gondolas and sleighs.
Such customisation means that no two carousels are the same, but it doesn’t stop there. Clients can compose their own music – the carousels house up to 10 different tunes – and even select from a range of materials to make their carousel.
One existing model incorporates wood – the work of a wood artisan from Queanbeyan, Canberra, who also does all the woodwork, including the floor of the carousel which features eight separate sections, joined together.
Another model has a silk circus roof divided into all the colours of the rainbow and embellished with 2,512 Swarovski crystal beads, each double hand-stitched. The artisan behind this work is an award-winning Sydney doll-maker, who Rotenstein approached after seeing her work at a Sydney Easter Show.
“I’m always on the lookout for special, talented people to work on the carousels,” Rotenstein says. “I influence all the artisans – what I’m looking for, they make. I’m not involved with making any particular part – just the design, and putting it all together.”
When asked which carousel is his favourite so far, Rotenstein nominates the Kindertraum – which means “child’s dream”. Shining like a full moon in silver and gold, this model was a great challenge to make, according to Rotenstein.
“I can’t go past the Kindertraum – it’s a real achievement. The curved silver roof is most complicated, very difficult and very costly to make,” he says. “Because the roof is shaped like a circus tent, it has to be made in eight sections – you have to heat it and bend it, heat it and bend it, until it all fits together perfectly.”
Rotenstein explains that the round base of this carousel is fashioned from a sheet of sterling silver, spun on a lathe to render the result.
George Rotenstein proudly displays one of his precious carousels.
“If we were to do that in 18-carat gold, using the same method, we’d need a big sheet of gold. There’s no guarantee it would work – the whole thing might shrivel up – and about $50,000 would be down the drain. We wouldn’t take that risk – we’d have to make it in sections, which would be hand-done and very costly. This is not an easy carousel to make.”
Perhaps another reason Rotenstein loves this model so much is that it was commissioned by one of Europe’s leading jewellers – who only gave Balgara three months in which to complete it!
“Every one of my team was delighted to be involved to create this masterpiece – they worked day and night to complete it because they knew it was urgent, but also because it is different to their normal, everyday work so it was a real challenge for them,” he says.
The Kindertraum carousel was commissioned by the world famous German jeweller Wempe, for its 125th anniversary. Wempe has 27 high-end jewellery stores, including stores in Paris, Vienna, Madrid, Fifth Avenue, New York, and Bond Street, London and in all the main cities of Germany.
The Kindertraum is set with black and white diamonds, pearls and solid 18-carat gold but, more peculiarly, the wood inserted into the steps comes from a piece leftover from the building of Parliament House in Canberra.
Another carousel sold was sold to a private collector in the US.
Needless to say, the miniature carousel business is not a very profitable one: “It has been a costly passion,” Rotenstein declares. “You have to find that end user – collectors who appreciate nice things. But the 73-year-old doesn’t seem to be in it for the money.
“At my age, it’s the challenge. I’m driven by my passion for creating the product,” he says.
Having exhibited in London at Earls Court Jewellery Fair, the Tucson Gem Fair, the Dubai Jewellery Fair and the Sydney Jewellery Show, Rotenstein is proud to share his prized pieces with the industry – and showcase the premium craftsmanship that can be achieved in Australia: “I’m very proud of that,” he says.
Posted September 01, 2009